Journal 36: What's a Book?

           What is a book, the definition of the book is a set of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of ink, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. I think the statement of Ralph Waldo Emerson means book can sometimes be everything and by nothing sometimes. How so, take books written in foreign languages for example. Mr. McCool raised told us how do we feel when we see a book written in Korean? Thus, I believe all of us would not understand what is the message that the author trying to convey in the book. For us, this is only a book with strange symbols and marks. However, what if a Korean sees this book, he/she probably can understand the contexts and the ideas of the author immediately. So, these two examples demonstrate book can sometimes be everything and nothing. “The eye that sees it is all”, I believe the “eye” means human’s eyes. We see and identify things through our eyes. Therefore, eye is the tool that sees everything. Every single person sees things in different point of views. When eyes can identify things that has meaning to us, then that is the moment when everything is clear to us.